The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1887-10-08

leaders in it will accept his argument
because while specious and full q
sophistrv, it furnishes them an excus
for attacks upon individual liberty
which their other teachings have lie
them to respect. No wonder Dr.
johnson finds in these teachings politi
cal and moral objections to his new
tangled ssism."
With the characteristic i%nsincerity O
prohibitionists in general, DR.. Johnso
says:-"A second misconception of tn
object OF prohibition is, that it seeks t
strike the individual, to invade hi
rights, to enter his home, and to com
pei him to stop drinking. But this i
not its object. Surely we may say
with every possible emphasis, this j
not its object. Prohibition aims at
thing. not a man. 1t means the drinI
shop, first and last and all the time. !
would smite a traffic, not d persona
indulgence; a%nnihilate grog shops, no
invade homes. If, in abolishing tn
saloons, prohibition does sometime
touch a personal right, the saloon i
nevertheless the thing aimed at. ant
not the personal right" With all du'
respect for the cloth, but licensed Il
use the word by the gentleman himself
we II be permitted to say that this
statement is the sheerest kind of non.
sense. A man asks for a saddle, and
under this safe-conduct 10 the stable he
takes a horse, is he not a trespasser, il
not a robber? DR.. johnson says, 'We
only, want to abolish .the salonns,' YET
his barty's platforms say, and his party's
constitutional amendments say, and his
party's statutes say, that the manutac-
ture and sale of alcoholic liquors in
any way for beverage purposes should
be prohibited. The doctor states that
the prohibitionists do not seek ito
strike the individual, to invade his
rights, to enter his home and compel
him to stop drinking yet when he
wrote these words he must have known
that in Maine, Iowa and Kansas the
prohibitionists have passed constitu-
tional aud statutory enactments
prohibiting the manufacture OF
i~ntoxicants, except for "mechani-
cal, medicinal or scientific purposes
Internationally we may say, that the
Wood local option law is wen worse
than these, for it does not recognize the
sale of liquors other than pure alcohol
for any purpose). In these states, not
with prohibiting the manufac-
lure for sale, they prohibited the man
fracture by the citizen for his W use
his own home. except for the pur-
poses above named. In Iowa they pro-
also, the importation, except
'or these specified purposes, and a case
s now pending in the United States
supreme court to test the constitution
of the law.
The conclusion is irresistible, either
hat DIR. johnson is %insincere, or that
le does not know the purposes
If the party which he assumes
o represent, for it is notorious, palpa-
Die, plain, that the prohibition party
proposes to prevent the citizen from
Using intoxicants anyWhere. The cry
If "SaloonI saloon! saloonl" is mere
y a subterfuge to catch men who still
lave the Americal love for personal
liberty in their hearts. 1t Is a delusion
md a snare, a false pretense, and an
outrage, in the mouths of men Who'll
NOW better yet repeat and repeat a
hing which they know to be untrue.
rhe prohibitionists do seek to invade
Individual rights, to strike down per-
top 6rmR1ng wine, peer, wnisfy or
my other intoxicant, even in the home.
The way this is enforced in Iowa by
visits has become widely
,nown of late. Maj. T. J. Anderson,
he democratic candidate for governor
# that state, said a few days ago:-''In
)es Moines it (the law was enforced
n a most outrageous manner. 1t
aused the death of one man, several
we're shot, parties were arrested, prem
ses were searched, &c. One
ustice OF the peace alone has, | be-
ieve, issued 400 or 500 search war
just think of the depths of
anaticism to which a community must
AVE fallen when public law will sane
ion the violation of the home to search
or liquors, which it is made a crime to
ave in possession. We blush for DR..
Johnson that he, a minister of the gos-
bel, should so misrepresent the party
# which he is said to be a leader. 1t
would be much more creditable to his
manhood to be RANKED among the crazy1
people who believe that prosecutions
or righteousness sake are services to
he Lord.
DR.. Johnson has the grace to recog-
1lze tha' ''~--o strong moral objec-
ion to prohibition, and ne o~-- -
he article which is held up to us as
n excellence a masterpiece oflogic,by
an appeal in favor of prohibition as a
mean. ID abolish the saloon than which
nothing could be more d~isingenuous
and unfair, not to say dishonest. u
The principles which he has advanced
are not those Of the prohibition party,
his argument from Ihem is a piece of
the thinnest kind of sophistry, and his
a sham and a false-pretense.
The doctor would much better come
out honestly, as the Voice, the national
prohibition organ, did a few days ago,
when it frankly stated that it did not
care anything about personal rights.
1t has grown almost into a proverb
that it is not safe to name your child
for a living person, least before the
person dies he may do something which
will cause you to regret it. So it is
not safe for our prohibition friends to
say that prohibition prohibits, and cite
this or that town as proof. A cast in
point is this:-A few weeks ago one 81
our good prohibition friends asked us
to print ali article from a ne spaper,